i started using the internet in the late 2000’s and still remember when you search for something most of the times it would return with a forum post … now its just random websites … if you ever need real and concise answer you have to add site:reddit.com at every search and since discord or twitter are not crawlable by these search crawlers they are not mentioned . Where did all those forums went…are there still active forums ?

    • BudFactory@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      That‘s not even all. The process now is something like:

      Search on Google: no answer -> search on Google with Reddit.com appended: no answer -> search on Google with Reddit and Discord Server appended: click through 3 expired invitation links -> finally find a working one: scroll through pages and pages of memes and rule34 content to find the answer you wanted

      I want my searchable forums and bulletin boards back ffs.

      • Wogi@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Search Google-> 5 YouTube videos pinned to the top

        Search Google with Reddit appended -> deleted comments in a thread 5 years old not even about my specific problem

        Search duck duck go -> numerous highly detailed websites that may or may not be related to my specific problem

        • eric@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The number of those comments that are deleted sure went up a couple of months ago. I wonder what happened 🤔

      • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        People falling back behind closed or private barriers for guaranteed human to human interaction and information as AI rises is more and more likely in the future … IMO.

      • Solarius@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        you can search specific channels on discord. if you’re seeing memes and r34 while searching for something in a hub server for a game or something then you’re not searching correctly. or the thing you’re trying to find info on is so niche and poorly organized they have 1 channel.